Turnout Low For Session On Five Projects

ENFIELD — Even with $84 million on the line in Tuesday's referendum, voters showed almost no interest when town leaders hosted their final question-and-answer session on Thursday night.

Fifty folding chairs were set out for an audience in the Prudence Crandall School auditorium, but only four residents and two political office-seekers showed up -- and only four of them spoke.

School board members Ken Hilinski and William Thomson Jr. dutifully went through their presentation of just what the $84 million would buy -- and why town leaders believe it's needed. Nine other council members and school board members sat through the hour-and-a- half-long session, even though they outnumbered residents by a ratio of nearly 2-to-1.

Afterward, several council members and board members said they weren't sure how to read the low turnout: Does it mean voters feel informed, or does it reflect widespread apathy?

``I'm not sure what it is,'' Thomson said.

Enfield voters on Tuesday will be asked to approve spending $84 million on five separate projects: Building a new senior center, constructing a second middle school, renovating the former Higgins School, putting up a storage building alongside Higgins, and expanding nine elementary schools and the Head Start program.

Thomson told his listeners that most of Enfield's elementary schools are like Crandall: A single large room serves as both gym and auditorium, while students must eat lunch in halls or classrooms because there's no cafeteria.

Question 1 on the referendum would expand the elementary schools by adding full-size gyms, larger libraries, computer rooms and special-education rooms. In the case of Prudence Crandall, a fifth wing would be built along the semicircular connector. It would house a larger library, a gym and space for other classes, while the auditorium would be remodeled into a cafeteria, Hilinski said.